


What Stays

by idolatry



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, i wrote this right after the movie came out how dare i not have posted it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 11:38:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9655763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idolatry/pseuds/idolatry
Summary: She has to go.





	

**Author's Note:**

> look. they're all force-sensitive. that's it, that's the point i wanted to make.

“Have you been to see Finn?” General Organa asks him, and she isn’t smiling.

“Ah, no. Not yet,” he says, looking away from her. He hopes she’s not angry with him for zoning out during the meeting.

“Go,” she says, and her hand on his arm presses lightly. “You should be there when he wakes up.”

She nods to him — he salutes her — and returns to her command. He says, “Thank you, General,” after she can no longer hear him, then takes a deep breath and heads toward the healers’ section of the base.

The girl, Rey, is beside Finn’s bed with her back to the door when he enters, and he pauses in the doorway, considering leaving, until her shoulders move and she spins to look at him, her face calm, her cheeks dry, and the outer corners of her eyes shining. “Hello,” she says, and glances at the man on the biobed. “Are you… Poe?”

Her gaze is piercing, and he can’t hold it for very long. “Yeah.” His fingers tap his leg. “Finn rescued me from the First Order.”

“I’m Rey,” she says, still staring at him, but then she stands, and she smiles just a little as she holds out her hand. He takes it, and they hold tight to each other very briefly, then let go. The tension in his shoulders eases. She gestures for him to sit with her.

They sit in silence for some minutes, watching Finn breathe. Then Rey says, “He’s my only friend.”

And he’s not having that. “Would you like another?”

“What?”

He shifts to look her in the eye; she is bewildered. “Any friend of Finn’s is a friend of mine. If you need _anything_ —”

“You don’t even know me!”

He laughs, and he hopes it isn’t cruel. “That’s usually how friendships start, in my experience.”

The shine has spread from the outer corners of her eyes across her lower lid. Then she laughs. “Okay,” she says, wiping at it.

“Great,” he says, and they smile at each other until, hesitantly, their gazes fall back to the bed.

“What I meant,” she starts, after a somber moment, “is that if anything happened to Finn, I couldn’t – I wouldn’t …” Her hands are chafing together, but he can’t think of anything that would help. He waits for her to finish her thought.

“I have to go,” she says finally, very quietly, and he is a little startled.

“Sure,” he tries. “Get some rest.”

“No, I mean…” She looks at him. “I have to leave the base, in a few minutes. Chewie and … there’s a droid, we’re taking the Falcon. I…” She is trying very hard not to cry outright now, so he slides, carefully, closer to her, so that their shoulders touch. He thinks it’s probably encouraging that she doesn’t pull away. Her breath becomes more focused, deeper, and even, and she wipes her eyes again, calm. “So, I can’t be here,” she finishes, and he realizes what she is asking him to do.

“But I will,” he answers, and she cocks her head, then surprises him by wrapping an arm around his shoulders and squeezing. He loops his own back around her waist, and they sit comfortably until she shifts to get up.

There is something in the room just after she leaves, after she presses a kiss to Finn’s forehead and whispers something meant for him to hear, and Poe frowns at it, frowns at her vacated spaces and down at Finn. There is something pounding quietly, like distant drums, only between his temples, but maybe also between Finn’s, and he thinks Rey left it there, or keeps it there, as a reminder that she’ll be back.

That night in his dreams, there is a blade of orange light in his hands. All he can remember the next morning is retreating until his back touches two others, and then he gets word that Finn is going to wake up, and he forgets even that, for now.

**Author's Note:**

> i wonder if carrie fisher ever read sw fic


End file.
